Job description
We have a fabulous opportunity for someone to become our new Service Manager for Home Ownership and it is the ideal next step for someone looking to advance their career within housing!
The successful incumbent will be required to lead, manage a small team and develop a modern approach to Home Ownership management in delivering a digital, quality, high-performing and value for money service. The ideal candidate will need to have exceptional relationship and stakeholder management, organisation and customer service skills to be successful in this role.
It will also be advantageous for the right candidate to have a broad understanding of property law including Section 20, experience of leading an annual service charge review process for homeowners as well as previous experience of performance, budget and line management.
If you have the right attitude, drive and creativity to transform and take this service to the next level we would love to hear from you!
If you are interested in learning more about this role, keep reading!
Note: The ideal candidate must be located within a 1 hours’ drive of Peterborough as frequent travel to our Homeowners and attendance to in-person meetings will be required.
Key Responsibilities
- To lead and manage the day to day delivery of the Home Ownership service in ensuring that the service complies with regulation and best practice and demonstrates high levels of customer satisfaction in the context of the service provided.
- Lead, manage and develop the Home Ownership team in line with CKH policies and procedures, paying particular attention to ensure all policies and procedures are accurate and aligned to corporate objectives, strategy and legislation and the team is led and motivated to deliver exceptional customer service.
- To lead and manage service delivery to new Homeowners working closely with Director of New Business Development and Sales Teams to ensure that resident first impression and subsequent service delivery is of a high quality and responsive home ownership service.
- Work closely with the Property Quality Team and Clerk of Works team in the handling of new property defects and champion the needs of the residents in ensuring a prompt and professional defects management approach is adhered to and enhances rather than diminishes the customer experience and ensure the service meets statutory and regulatory requirements in relation to Home Ownership management.
- To maintain links and liaise with Managing Agents who deliver services to our estates to ensure services are high quality and also represent value for money
- Be responsible for financial management and oversight, including the setting, management, forecasting and continual monitoring of the budget for Home Ownership.
- To lead the annual service charge review process for Homeowners and to ensure that service charge processes conform to regulation, best practice, the terms of individual leases and are communicated in a clear and transparent way to Homeowners.
- Take responsibility with the Service Manager- Income Management and the Finance team to manage and control Shared Ownership/Leasehold income and expenditure through financial control, accurate financial systems, monitoring of rent and service charge payments and correct interpretation of legislation, with a view to maximising income.
- Working with the Asset Management team, take responsibility for the full cost recovery of major works carried out on Shared Ownership/Leasehold properties and that Section 20 principles are correctly applied to all works.
- Take direct responsibility for business performance in the context of Home Ownership Management using all available customer insight to ensure the service is tailored to individual customers, using data to demonstrate continuous improvement.
- Take responsibility with relevant key stakeholders across the business to ensure Home Ownership customers are represented across the breadth of the organisation. This will include working with Directors and other Service Managers to focus on providing a seamless customer journey for all customers in this tenure, from the start of the development process, through to sales and then the ongoing management of these customers. The post holder will be responsible for ensuring that residents receive excellent customer service, wherever they are in the customer journey.
- Ensure customer engagement is at the forefront of the delivery of this service. Lead on the transformation of a framework of customer engagement, using a variety of communication methods to best suit the customer, continuing the shift to a more digital approach using social media channels to create a consistent customer experience. Ensure the voice of the customer is consistently applied to all service transformation and that their views, opinions and concerns are represented.
- Take responsibility for Home Ownership complaints and ensuring that they are efficiently and effectively resolved in line with CKH policies and procedures, paying attention to enhancing the organisation’s reputation as a quality provider of management services.
- Work closely with the Assistant Director of Housing Needs, to ensure that Directors’ Team are regularly informed of service delivery performance, including KPIs, by producing director-level reports and a dashboard of KPI information to provide assurance that the service is effective and well managed.
- Ensure that data integrity is maintained across the Home Ownership service enabling services to be tailored and delivered in a way that reflects the needs of the client group.
- Lead on benchmarking for leasehold/shared ownership services engaging with other RSLs, local authorities and the private sector, taking direct responsibility for ensuring Home Ownership management is future-proofed in the context of leasehold reform and future legislative changes, so that the service continues to perform at its optimum.
- Lead change management activities considering the digital approach, status of Home Ownership tenures, growth, conducting impact analyses and preparing risk mitigation where applicable.
- Deliver effective operational planning, ensuring that annual service plans reflect current corporate objectives. Ensure efficient service delivery and monitoring of KPIs against service plan delivery, taking direct responsibility for ensuring that there is a full suite of performance indicators and management information to support the effective running of the service. This will include monitoring and evaluating customer satisfaction to ensure all feedback contributes to the continuous improvement of the service.
- Take direct responsibility for reviewing, adapting and implementing national policy changes to reflect the changing needs of the business and customers, whilst always balancing the commercial and social agenda, applying technical expertise within leasehold and housing law frameworks to ensure appropriate advice is given to Homeowners.
Essential Criteria
- Relevant vocational qualification / diploma or equivalent. A recognised housing qualification CIH level 3 or 4 or working towards.
- A broad knowledge of property law, landlord and tenant act and interpretation of legislation relating to the landlord relationship with owners.
- Experience of leading effective teams using performance management
- Experience of working in a regulated environment
- Experience in managing boundary and land ownership matters to successful resolution.
- Experience in housing management within a relevant setting
- Knowledge of shared ownership legislation and best practice
- Experience of interpreting leases to achieve compliance
- Demonstrate knowledge of using IT applications including Microsoft word, Excel, Power point and Outlook
- Experience of promoting resident involvement where measured outcomes have been achieved
- Experience of managing contracts and contractors to achieve compliance
- Ability to use initiative and judgement and demonstrate effective problem solving and organisational skills
- Ability to lead and manage people effectively to maximise business performance
- Experience of delivering a high quality customer focused service
- Demonstrate an understanding of the customer base being managed
- Experience of successful complaint management and resolution
- Ability to influence at all levels
- Ability to create, sustain and develop effective working relationships within the business
- Ability to meet deadlines and respond quickly and positively to changing service needs.
- Demonstrable verbal and written communication skills. Ability to write and present executive level reports
- Ability to manage diverse external relationships by establishing common goals
Additional Information
- DBS check required
- Access to a suitably insured vehicle for business purposes